President Donald J. Trump disembarks Air Force One Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, at Erie International Airport in Erie, Pennsylvania. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
Voters in Colorado, which is led by progressive Democrats in the governor's office, the state Senate and the state House, have adopted a plan designed to allow the national popular vote for to determine the state's votes for president.
Called the National Popular Vote movement, it would bypass the Electoral College, in which electors from each state cast the vote for president, based on the vote of the populace in the state.
Colorado voters chose Tuesday to join the movement, which critics say would allow the votes in small states to be swallowed by the nation's large population centers in New York, Texas and California.
The compact is supposed to take effect when enough states sign up to total at least 270 Electoral College votes.
Proponents of the campaign argue it's their best chance to effectively eliminate the Electoral College. Removing it from the Constitution would require an amendment ratified by three-fourths of the states.
But the plan could face court challenges if it ever took effect.
The Washington Examiner reported Colorado joined the compact with the Democratic-majority states of Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, Vermont, California, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico and Oregon.
An opponent of the compact, former Republican state House Speaker Frank McNulty, argued Colorado's votes "should be decided by Coloradans."
"This is going to reduce Colorado’s clout, and it's going to reduce our influence on issues like transportation, water, health care, and funding for our military bases," he said.
The vote followed a $4.4 million campaign funded by outsiders.
McNulty said voters "were tricked by California billionaires, who spend millions of dollars to buy our votes for president."
Part of the drive behind the campaign was the resentment of Colorado Democrats who saw Hillary Clinton lose the Electoral College vote while garnering more popular votes nationally. However her margin of 2.8 million votes nationally was smaller than her advantage of 4.3 million votes in California.
Congresswoman-elect Lauren Boebert accused the Democratic governor, Jared Polis, of stealing Coloradans' votes to give to California.
McNulty said the reason Colorado, with nine Electoral College votes, has any clout on national issues is "because the way we allocate our electoral votes matters."
Don Wilson, the mayor of Monument, Colorado, said the national popular vote "would make the entire middle of the country flyover states."
"You, as a presidential candidate, are going to try and get the most bang for your buck and go to California and New York," he said.
"Compare that to the money it would cost to go to the rural areas of Colorado where there are five acres between people, and I’m worried that those people will get lost in the shuffle if we do a popular vote."
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